Labor lost their battle decades ago, when they lost their idealism and settled on the independent self-centered specialties model. Unions could be as uncaring as their bosses for the average working man or woman. I admire the integrity of the old left (now mostly gone) that had high principles and truly stood for the common laborer and a common union of all workers, with leaders elected democratically in open and fully transparent elections. The Socialist Labor Party, the third oldest extant party in the U.S. and the most peaceful of these three (and you well know the other two parties), is a good example. http://slp.org/what_is.htm

November 13, 2010

‎”…research and development at nonmilitary agencies — including those that sponsor science and health research — would fall 12.3 percent, to $57.8 billion, from Mr. Obama’s request of $65.9 billion for fiscal year 2011.” (NYTimes report of Republican platform promising reduction in science and health research.) But don’t suppose that we will get nothing. Instead, we will get science for financial investors, brought to you by those who discovered Vioxx (recalled), Meridia (recalled). Propofol (recalled), Avandia (warning) etc. etc. See http://www.drugrecalls.com/propofol.html and http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/default.htm So let’s restrict funding from going to the already underfunded FDA. Give people back their freedom to choose their own (heavily-advertised) poison. “I demand my junk food and Fen-phen!”

“Sponsorship almost invariably predicts the results of research. David Ludwig and his colleagues demonstrated this phenomenon in studies of the effects of soft drinks on childhood obesity. Independent studies almost invariably find an association between habitual consumption of soft drinks and obesity. By contrast, industry-sponsored studies almost never do.” (more…)